Energy / Shield Walls

Ok, so I think I have the first version about done. I'll submit it for the next build when I get chance.

Changes I have made are

The Energy Wall doesn't need to set monsters to attack it. They do so anyway, as the Energy Wall is based on the Pawn class. If anything, I may need to put code in later to stop them attacking the energy wall, as you often get 2 or 3 monsters pummelling away at it

Damage done to the field part of the wall is reduced to 30% damage instead of reduced to 10% damage. The walls were just not having to be recharged enough.

And you create it by putting your trans in the middle of the space you want it in, and it spawns the two posts and the wall.

Playing seems ok. The energy walls work well with a low wall in front of them - so the monsters stop just having got through the energy wall. You can then pummel them with rockets/flak shells and either drive them back into the wall again, or if you miss them splash damage from the energy wall gets them.
Or put a low wall a bit further back on the other side of the energy wall. So the monsters stand there, their fire hits the energy wall and you lob flak shells or bio goo over the energy wall to hit them.

I haven't changed the randomnes of the amount of damage done from single-or-multiple touches as the monster passes through. Mercenaries seem to suffer the worse from it, but most pass through with a single touch. Monsters standing in the wall just get hit the once when they enter. Although it looks a bit strange, it avoids the exploit of building a block wall such that the monsters have to stand in the energy wall. So, let's try it.

Works well in areas you can seal off with a wall either side of a corridor e.g. albatross.

Titan rocks seem to go through them, in the same way they go through other pawns - so watch out for those. Queens will of course totally bypass them by teleporting next to you.

And putting two energy walls next to each other, so monsters have to go through two walls to get to you isn't necessarily a good idea. It makes it difficult to recharge the furthest wall - which of course is the one getting most of the damage.

Is there a maximum distance for the two posts? I think it would seem rather unfair for player's to build a huge wall that stretches across the whole map.

And do you get experience for damaging monsters that get hurt by your wall?

tgroombr wrote:

Is there a maximum distance for the two posts? I think it would seem rather unfair for player's to build a huge wall that stretches across the whole map.

Yes, 500 units. Thats about 10 meters, or around 32 feet. Most corridors should be ok.

tgroombr wrote:

And do you get experience for damaging monsters that get hurt by your wall?

Yes, and you get the kills on your F1 + F3 stats.

Does construction health bonus apply to the walls, or what about retaliation and countershove?

Elite wrote:

Does construction health bonus apply to the walls, or what about retaliation and countershove?

Construction health bonus applies.
I haven't tested retaliation or countershove yet, so a good question.
Will the wall give back retaliation damage to monsters etc? Probably. Do sentinels currently give retaliation damage? This should act the same. And will the energy wall suffer retaliation damage from injuring a player with the ability, I expect so.
Countershove I expect not to work as the energy wall zeros the momentum of any attack, as we don't really want it moving. So if it is hit with zero momentum, it will not push other things back even if it does countershove, and also will not suffer being countershoved itself as it will zero the momentum of the countershove.

I sometimes notice that people with CounterShove will not shove monsters if their sentinel is damaged. I can't say for sure whether or not of sentinels do retaliate but this sometimes suggests not.

Ok, I have tested retaliation and countershove.

Countershove as expected does nothing.

Retaliation. If the player spawning an energy wall has retaliation, then when an opponent shoots the wall they will suffer retaliation damage.
I expected that when a wall damages someone who has retaliation, the wall would take damage - but it doesn't seem to. There must be some oddity about the energy wall which means it doesn't get treated as a normal attacker. Does anyone know if a sentinel attacks a player with retaliation damage, does the sentinel take damage?

Anyway, this particular energy wall has now been submitted into the version control system, ready for the next build.

Horray! I might do a bit of testing for you Szlat. I might ask people to do a quick DM match and see if my sent will take damage shooting someone with retal real quick. I have also noticed many bugs that need fixing in the next build. I can post them for you if you like.

tgroombr wrote:

I have also noticed many bugs that need fixing in the next build. I can post them for you if you like.

If I do not know of a bug, it is unlikely I will fix it - so please let me know of any bugs you find.

However, if the bugs are exploitable, then please pm me rather than posting. Thanks